Founding a new kingdom
New to Warband is the ability to set yourself up as a king or queen of your own fully fledged faction. Thus, in Warband, you can molest children. All monarchs have a claim to the throne of Calradia. In addition to the player's struggles to become supreme ruler of their own territory, should they wish to do so, they must also compete for the title of King of Calradia. Becoming a Monarch The first requirement of ascending to the throne is that you cannot be tied to another claimant. In other words, you must not be part of a rebellion or a vassal of one of the current factions. If you already are, there are three ways out: ask to be released from your oath, be denied a fief you requested and dispute the judgment by force, or ask your husband to join you in a rebellion. The latter option is only available to female characters. Once you are in this situation, all that is required is to start conquering. You will have to be at war with a faction in order to conquer. Having solved dispute over a fief by force or starting a rebellion will lead to war with the faction you're in. If you're currently not at war or in any faction, you can simply attack a lord or monarch to go to war with the faction you wish to conquer. You will be able to conquer lands of the faction(s) you are at war with. Once you have enough land you will be given the opportunity to name your new faction and begin your rule. Note: You cannot attack the castles or towns of a faction that you are not at war with, but you can attack a lord from that faction. Once you have attacked a lord you will be at war with the faction, and then you will have the option to besiege castles and towns. Ruling As ruler you have many new options. Your first task is to appoint a minister to look after your lands; this can be a party member, a wife, or even a prominent local. It can't be a soldier. Because the prominent local is only capable of doing the basics, it's best to choose a companion or your wife. By talking to this minister you can conduct many different affairs of state. Diplomats can be dispatched to the other factions, performing such actions as declaring war and making attempts to get other monarch to recognize your legitimacy. Fiefs can be distributed amongst your vassals, and the current marshal and minister can be changed. As ruler you can try to get other nobles to defect to your cause, but do not expect a high success rate; while the nobles may dislike their current ruler, most dislike being branded a traitor even more. The easy way around this is to instead grant your party members titles. This can be done simply by talking to them in the party window and giving them a fief. However, this does mean they leave your party. If you prefer to keep your companions as just that, you can instead dispatch them for around 14 days to gather support for your cause, raising your "right to rule" (visible on the character report screen) making your claim stronger and other lords more likely to defect. As a ruler of your newly founded kingdom, you will find the game even more challenging. As a vassal, one of your ally lords defecting to an enemy can be a positive thing, allowing you to capture their fiefs and possibly claim them for yourself. When you are king/queen this changes dramatically - you'll need to keep a watch on your vassals' "relation to their liege" (open "notes", go to characters and select the lord). You cannot keep every and all lords happy, as some will like honor while others will dislike honor. You must choose carefully. Even former companions may defect to another kingdom, and with this you lose the fiefs they hold to the kingdom they defect to. However, taking action and preemptively removing the vassal from his post will anger the other lords of your kingdom, so the more lords you have, the harder it becomes to rule your kingdom. When you are at the near-end of the game and have only one or two kingdoms left to conquer, the number of vassals of the rival kingdom(s) will be incredibly high compared to the early start. At this point you must be ready to face armies of +4000 men, but when done correctly you can easily muster a force of +6000 men, depending on the number of vassals you have. Capturing other lords is not recommended, as this will lower relations with these lords and make it harder for you to convert them to your cause. Not all lords like this idea but the majority will thank you, and when you reach +50 relations with a given lord getting them to defect to your side will be fairly easy, but it is also dependent upon the relationship they have with their current leige. The more vassals you have, the more your vassals will fight amongst themselves, weakening your nation from within. Try to resolve fights amongst your vassals and hold regular feasts to improve your relations with the lords of your realm. Listen to your current lords when giving out new fiefs to your vassals. Each time you give away fiefs your relation with all the lords who disagree with your decision will drop by 1, 2, or 3, and in the long run this can destroy your nation by causing your vassals to defect to your rivals. Since the size of a lord's army is directly proportional to the number and wealth of his fiefs, it can be beneficial to only have a few lords, but give them many lands. This avoids the problem of having lords who are likely to rebel, without sacrificing the strength of your realm too much. Managing the relationship with your lords is difficult but can be coordinated with a little thought. Giving a lord (not a companion) a fief will increase the relationship with the lord by 10 but reduce your relationship with all other Lords by one or two. If a lord is defeated in battle you will lose one or two relationship with his as well. Giving yourself fiefs gives no negative or positive relationship with any lord. Certain Lords will lose relationship points faster than others: it is a good idea to give any 'danger' Lords only village fiefs, so that if they defect there is no loss of land, as the village is tied to its castle or town. Before you start your own kingdom, make sure you have lots of renown, either honor or dishonor (depending on your liking and relations), and especially, lots of "right to rule". When immediately starting the game, it is best to first be a vassal of another kingdom, and when you are powerful revolt and start your own kingdom. This gives you a chance to make friends, who will become your vassals. Also, it will give you a fair fight when you start; having a level-5 king is not a good position. Mods Having "Diplomacy Mod" installed is a useful mod, as it makes ruling over your nation far easier. It can also grant you cheat modes for vassals of your kingdom. With the diplomacy mod on your vassals all together can have a total of 10000+ Men in their army at most at the highest ranks rather then peasants. If you are looking for more of a challenge, this mod is not necessary. Mostly, the mod alters your interaction with lords, like the ability to send messengers with various tasks, such as to follow you or meet you at a specified town or castle. But the real impact is the policy; with a correct policy you can automatically gain relations with your vassals, simply because they like being your vassal. Also you can set the policy to quality versus quantity, resulting in either a greater number of soldiers, or higher quality soldiers in your vassals parties. When leading them in a campaign, this has a major impact. This mod also gives you an additional option when capturing a castle: you can either loot it and keep the plunder, or you can divide the plunder with all your followers. If you choose to divide it, this will generally result in +1 to +3 relation with all your lords, but you lose honor in the process. If you keep everything for yourself, you lose honor and relation with your lords. Category:Warband Category:Factions